1.   How do you sharpen?

       Our techniques, use lubricated abrasives, under magnification and specialized lighting and machinery which allow us to monitor angles, heat, and the amount of material being removed at every step.  Whether the steel is hard or soft we are in control of the geometry and edges, one blade at a time, scrutinized for consistency.

2.      What is knife rental? 

Companies which drop and pick up a given number of knives on a schedule are considered knife rental companies by us.  The restaurant soon owns few knives, and specialty knives are usually not supplied or sharpened.  The line chef's don't take pride in their tools as they don’t own them.  Edges are not long lasting, and become jagged with repeated steeling making for dangerous accidents.  The quality of knives, steel, edge and shape is limited.  The blade is usually thick and are almost always sharpened by hollow grinding which guarantees less support behind the edge.
Chef’s we've talked to say they are sharp from two days to a week.  This is why most knife rental companies supply diamond steels to their customers.  It requires workers to try and grind an edge back using their abrasive steel to little avail. 

3.      Why use ceramic steels?

A perfectly smooth, benign steel is what is needed to maintain a perfect edge.  A fine edge is long.  It can be compared to a reinforced razor at the apex of the blade.  This ‘razor’ can and should ‘bend’ when pushed against bone,etc.  A ceramic steel allows the user to ‘bend’ the ‘razor’ back without cutting it off.  Of course like all steel, repeated bending back and forth with result in the breaking of the edge.  This is when the knife needs to be re-sharpened. Most metallic steels are abrasive and magnetized.  This is in order to catch shards of metal which have been shredded from the knife.  Diamond steels are also very abrasive although less so to the touch.  Previous to the techniques used by Perfect Edge, most knives losts their edge and required the user to frequently attempt to improve them.  In most cases the abrasive steels were cutting saw teeth into the knives by ripping small chunks from the edge.  Ceramic steels are much more benign.  They must be used on an excellent edge to be functional

4.      What is the best steel for a knife edge? 

        The hardening process determines the qualities of steel.  In virtually all cases the recipes used by companies is a manufacturing secret.  When those of us in the industry go to German or Japanese knife factories, they show us many of their processes, but they don’t take us into the rooms where the hardening is done. Harder steel can be sharpened to a finer degree, but require more attention to use and care.